Like many Barrie residents, Theresa Gray-Gunn is done with winter.
But instead of just sitting back and complaining about how high her snowbanks are, or how tired she is from all the shovelling, the Coleman Drive resident decided to add a little spring to her step by bringing a little look of spring to her snowbanks.
Gray-Gunn said that although she’s experienced some pretty impressive winters since moving to the city in 1998, at nearly than nine-feet tall she’s pretty sure this is the tallest her snowbanks have ever been.
“We have had a couple of bad years, but never this high! Years ago, when we moved to Barrie, we loved winter because our kids skied, we skied and it was close to the hills and fun for the kids. At this age, I am just done with it,” she said.
Although she says she doesn’t exactly hate winter, Gray-Gunn is definitely not a fan of extreme cold and shovelling snow.
After several days of living inside what felt like a never-ending snow globe, Gray-Gunn decided she needed some “brightness” in her life and decided to paint some brightly coloured flowers on the snowbanks in her west-end driveway.
“I needed something other than winter,” she said. “I went out and got some bright spray paint because all I had was grey, and I wasn’t painting grey. We had some sunshine and I just wanted to brighten it up.”
Gray-Gunn says she’s hoping that not only will her impromptu art project bring some smiles to the winter-weary faces of her neighbours, but that more young kids will get outside and try it themselves.
“You don’t need to use spray paint. In hindsight, I could have used my little bottles of paint mixed with water in a spray bottle or some food colouring … and I’d love to see kids out doing this on their snowbanks," she said.
Seeing the flowers every time she comes out her front door is simply making her happy, she said.
“I just threw it out there for something fun and hoped it may give parents an idea for their kids,” said Gray-Gunn.
Since posting her photo on a local Facebook group, she says she's received more than 1,000 “likes” and has been receiving lots of positive feedback from residents telling her how much her photo has made them smile.
“I am in shock,” she said of the response.
Gray-Gunn plans on continuing her new garden for a while, at least until it begins to melt — which hopefully isn’t too far off.
